Changing the oil in a motor vehicle and checking the drain cap or gasket on the engine crankcase frequently results in spilling of oil onto both the ground and the hands of the person removing the drain cap. As can be appreciated, cleaning up after such spills can be time-consuming and a nuisance. Additionally, in many instances, a stripped drain cap or a ruined or worn drain cap gasket is not discovered until after the engine crankcase is filled with new oil. In such circumstances, the new oil must be drained out of the crankcase in order to enable replacement of the drain cap. Similarly, other repairs to the crankcase can also require the removal of the engine oil. Draining the oil in these situations can lengthen the time necessary for performing the repairs and can result in the waste of some or all of the oil, if it cannot be recycled for later use.
Thus, a need exists for a device which helps to prevent spilling of oil when the crankcase drain cap is removed to change the oil and eliminates the need to drain the oil from the crankcase when performing repairs to the crankcase. Because of the wide variety of different types and sizes of motor vehicles, in order to enable such a device to be cost-effective, it preferably should be readily adaptable to any size engine (i.e. any crankcase capacity) and any size engine oil filler opening. Moreover, such a device should not require an investment in any costly machinery or equipment, but instead should be useable with equipment already commonly found in automotive repair shops.